IF YOU CANNOT BEAT THEM, INSULT THEM

Click for AUDIO VERSION.To use this segment in a Radio broadcast or Podcast, send TIM a request.

When it comes to humor in America, the age of subtlety disappeared a long time ago. Now, it’s a matter of “in your face” comedy whereby innuendo has been replaced by shock. Desperate for laughs, comedians rely on bawdy vulgarities to entertain their audiences. This is particularly true today in political humor where people like CBS’s Stephen Colbert and HBO’s Bill Maher recently used vulgar sexual humor in reference to President Donald Trump.

The question becomes, have we gone too far? Are such jokes designed to really be entertaining or just plain vicious? I understand the concept of free speech, but I also understand what is in bad taste.

Years ago, comedian Soupy Sales was thrown off the air for kiddingly asking his young viewers to take the change off of their parent’s dressers and mail it to the station for the crew’s holiday vacation. The FCC and his station wasted little time suspending him. A vulgarity like what is commonly heard on television today would have ended an entertainer’s career back then. Not anymore.

The crude and vulgar humor of liberal comedians on television is the new norm, and the FCC is slow to reprimand such bad taste. They now say things about Mr. Trump nobody would dare say about Barack Obama without fear of retribution. Plain and simply, it is classless, devoid of good taste, and insolent. Even worse, it is not funny and represents a deterioration of our culture. Despicable behavior endears you to nobody other than your friends who think the same as you.

More importantly, it is not going unnoticed by independent voters who handed Mr. Trump the election last November. The Democrats are no longer a national party. Because of its liberal slant, it only appeals to bedrock liberals in New England, Miami, Chicago, western California, and Seattle. The Midwest, South, the northern industrial states, and the West are not amused by the liberal antics, and are more interested in seeing the country prosper economically and peacefully.

The obnoxious behavior of the liberal comedians stoke the flames of controversy and encourages others, such as protesters and anarchists, to take action. The result, we are no longer tolerant of the rights of others. Hence, liberal college students are emboldened to shout-down opposing opinions, or fire-bomb a building. Colbert and Maher may have hit a cord with their Democratic viewers but they are also encouraging them to be more antagonistic. It is this mindset which is going to ultimately cost the Democrats next year’s mid-term elections. Obnoxious zealots are less likely to win political jobs than people who appear to be cool under pressure.

This is going to be a hard lesson for Democrats to learn. Until such time as the liberals can temper their fanaticism and appeal to the masses, not just the coasts, they will continue their death spiral. Then we will see who is laughing.